Non-native red alga Gracilaria vermiculophylla compensates for seagrass loss as blue crab nursery habitat in the emerging Chesapeake Bay ecosystem.

ABSTRACT: Non-native species can become deleterious or potentially beneficial as components of novel ecosystems. The non-native red macroalga Gracilaria vermiculophylla may provide nursery habitat where eelgrass Zostera marina has been extirpated in Chesapeake Bay. A mensurative experiment was conducted monthly May-October 2013 and 2014 in the York River, Chesapeake Bay, to evaluate hypotheses that Gracilaria (1) can compensate for the loss of seagrass nurseries by colonizing habitats where seagrass has been eliminated by environmental stress, and (2) is utilized by juvenile blue crabs (Callinectes sapidus) as nursery habitat. We quantified Gracilaria presence, percent cover, and biomass as a function of region (upriver, midriver, and downriver) and seagrass presence or absence using stratified rand

SUBMITTER: Wood MA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9154113 | biostudies-literature | 2022

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature